1960

More than 100m Etch A Sketch boards have been sold worldwide since the original hit US shops in 1960 for $2.99. The screen is filled with aluminium powder and twisting its two knobs moves a stylus which shifts the powder to create a line. You can now play Etch a Sketch on tablets and smartphones, and the
Insta Etch A Sketch app can turn photos into Etch A Sketch drawings.

1974

Connect Four is a two player game with the aim of getting four discs of the same colour lined up vertically, horizontally, or diagonally before your opponent does. Today smartphone versions let users play against computers, or strangers from around the world.

1998

Game Boy Color, along with its predecessor Game Boy (1989), sold more than 118m units. In 1995, at a time when games manufacturers said they were trying to address the gender bias, Nintendo claimed
46% of Game Boy users were girls.

1996

Created in Japan, Tamagotchi was a digital handheld pet that could “die” (sometimes in less than half a day) if care was poor. Vigilance was key but, as a result, they were deemed a distraction and banned from many schools. Huge in the 1990s, Tamagotchi returned in 2013 as a
smartphone app.

1998

More than 40m Furbies were sold during the three years of its original production. With a language of its own (Furbish), the owl-like robots were programmed to gradually start using English words. The new and improved 2013 Furby Boom could remember its given name, change personality based on how it was treated and dance to music. It also came with
an app that created baby Furbies.

1999

MSN Messenger was a desktop computer instant messaging service where whole conversations could be had in emoticons (
predecessor of emojis). Peak MSN time was after school, but in the age of dial-up internet, parents could knock you off the service by picking up the landline phone. In 2006, MSN had 240 million monthly active users; today
Whatsapp has 1 billion,

2009

Angry Birds was released for use on the iPhone and later expanded to other touchscreen smartphones. As of 2015, the game had been downloaded
more than 3bn times. Playing games such as Angry Birds on smartphones and tablets from a young age has been
linked to delayed progress at school. However, as a relatively new area of research,
experts are divided on the impact of touchscreen technology on childhood development.

2016

The Wi-Fi enabled Hello Barbie Dreamhouse features voice recognition technology allowing kids to command the house to do things like turn the oven on. Hello Barbie can also listen to a child and respond via voice much like Apple’s Siri. Upon the launch, privacy advocates
raised concerns about technology that sends recordings of conversations with children to third-party companies. However,
advocates say the toys are safe and can enhance play. In 2016, Matell released a new range of Barbies with varied hair, skin tones and body shapes – Barbie’s biggest update since she was invented.

2016

Oculus Rift is a virtual reality (VR) headset purchased by Facebook in 2014 for $2bn. The headset gives gamers an immersive VR experience, into games such as
Minecraft. As well as gaming, VR headsets are being used to
help train medical students for surgery.